I saw Bounce last night. If you haven’t seen this movie and plan to, you might not want to read on. I don’t think there are any major spoilers coming up but I can’t be sure so I thought I’d warn you anyhow. A quick peek at imdb will let you know that it’s about an advertising agent, Buddy, who gives his first class plane ticket to another passenger to do him a favor (and he wants to hook up with another traveler who’s stuck in an airport hotel for the night). The plane crashes and everyone dies. (All this is in the preview, so no spoilers) Buddy goes through some personal crisis and then start looking for the other passenger’s wife and family to subtly help them. As you might be able to guess, they fall in love, etc, etc.
Let me get to my point. At one point Abby, the wife, tells her best friend that she doesn’t want to be with Buddy she’d be with him cause her husband died and she doesn’t want to be doing that. Her friend, quite wisely, says, “Whether it’s Buddy now or another man one year later, you’ll be with him cause Greg died.” To me, that was one of the most brilliant lines of the movie, cause while her friend was totally right, I’d never thought about it that way. It made me realize how shortsighted I’d been.
The movie sparked up a lot of interesting thoughts in me about how every single choice we make affects our life. Most importantly, the choices we don’t make do, too. The path we decide not to travel and the options we pass on. Every single thing we do and don’t do has a bearing not only on our lives but possibly on many other people’s as well. Kinda freaky when you think about it…
My friend, Steven, emphasized a sad fact about my personality, recently, when we talked about my upcoming Japanese exam.
He asked, “So, what happens if you fail this exam?”
“Nothing.”
“So what happens if you pass?”
“Nothing.”
Talk about self-inflicted stress…
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